[thelist] store locator script

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Hi Liz

The 'easy' way to do this is to do a simple match of ZIPs straight out of
the database. The trouble is that mapping ZIPs onto real world geography is
much more complex than that - even if you had a location in *every* ZIP,
could you guarantee that the one in my ZIP is the closest? What if I live
right at one edge of the area, and the dealer's right at the other edge?

And given that you don't have a store in every ZIP, how do you know where
the nearest one is? And is that the nearest one by simple 'as the crow
flies' distance, or by travel time?

You see, it's quite complex. What you're talking about is a Geographical
Information System (GIS) which *knows* how ZIPs map onto real world spacial
distribution, and can actually work out the nearest X to Y based on
geocoding systems like ZIPs.

It's almost inconceivable that a simple script could do the job for you -
you *are* talking about spending money with someone like
http://www.qas.com/ for a product which has a geocoded ZIP dataset and can
do distance and/or travel time calculations.

Jeff has a very good point btw about data update frequency - most GISs are
leased rather than bought and come along with a data update contract. This
is A Good Thing - you'll need that.

FWIW we're using QAS products on the storelocator we have here:
http://www.malts.com/malts/en_GB/discover/storeLocator/locateStore
(UK based, so use my postcode: EH11 1QJ)
but there are other quality suppliers.

Cheers
Martin



Subject:    [thelist] store locator script


Hi everyone,
    I've got a client looking to put on a "store locator" script on their
    web
site. ...you know, the kind of thing where you stick in your zip code and
out
pops the stores closest to your location?

 Is there any 'out  of the box' scripts for this kind of thing?

Probably has about 300 stores in the US.


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